Day 199: Isaiah 24-27 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 199. We are in the apocalyptic section of the book of Isaiah, also known as Isaiah's Apocalypse. So we're studying Isaiah chapter 24, 25, 26, and 27, four chapters of the biblical text today. If you have already done the reading, then you're gonna enjoy this, this is gonna be great. If you haven't done the reading, you're gonna be confused by everything that I have to say. No, I'm just joking. You're not gonna be confused, but you're not gonna have proper context. So stop the video, stop the audio, do the reading, and then come on back, and let's talk through what it all means. Like always, we're always gonna give you context clues, nerdy nuggets, and a timeless truth. So let's jump into our context clue for day 199. Normally, our context clue involves like a date or something that's happening, like a historical event or some kind of scenario between two people. But today, our context clue is actually a genre. So like I said, chapters 24 to 27 is what we would call Isaiah's Apocalypse. It's an apocalyptic vision.

So before we even try to interpret what's going on, let's first wrap our minds around apocalyptic literature. You may have heard me say this story before, but I'm so grateful that my senior year of my undergraduate degree in Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College, my senior year, we all got to pick like a senior seminar, and I picked a class on the Book of Revelation. So for an entire semester, we studied the Book of Revelation. And so I'm expecting day one, we about to crack open Revelation chapter one, and we're gonna get to it. And instead of doing karate, my teacher, Dr. Matheson gave us wax on, wax off, okay? And so for two and a half months, all we read was apocalyptic literature that was not the Book of Revelation. Because the mistake that a lot of Christians make is that they have no experience reading apocalyptic literature. And then they rush in to start reading the Book of Revelation. And they think that just because they have the Holy Spirit that they can interpret ancient texts in genres that they are totally unfamiliar with. And yes, the Holy Spirit gives you an ability to understand. Of course, the Holy Spirit does that. But the Holy Spirit also gives you

a thing called self-control, aka discipline, to read and to study and to learn so that you can interpret things based on an academic understanding of what they mean. So two and a half months of just reading apocalyptic literature. And Isaiah chapter 24 to 27 is one of the pieces of apocalyptic literature that we had to get familiar with. So I want you to think about two things. Number one, Isaiah is a prophet, but Isaiah is also a poet. And poetry is art. And like any art form, doesn't matter what the art form, artists are constantly pushing the bounds on what is normative, okay? So apocalyptic literature is growing out of prophetic and poetic artistic interpretation, okay? So apocalyptic literature is more symbolic, more visual, more hyperbolic. Apocalyptic literature typically involves visions that should not be interpreted literally. If you think about, okay, a book like Isaiah and most prophetic books are prophecy, but they're also poetry, which means that these prophets are artists, okay? Because poetry is art. And every artist, doesn't matter if it's music, doesn't matter if it's painting, is going to be an artist.

They're going to continue to push the bounds of creative expression. And so apocalyptic literature is a form of literature that is growing out of prophets who are artists, artistic prophets. Also, artistic literature is going to skyrocket as the people of Israel are under oppression because the thought, is that, uh, while we're captive to the Babylonians, if the Babylonians pick this up and read it, they're only going to be confused. Okay. And so the, the Lang apocalyptic literature is very subversive. It's anti-Babylonian, but how can you be anti-Babylonian while you're living in Babylon? Well, you make your literature something that's highly coded. And when you make your literature, something that's highly coded, then only people on the inside are able to understand it. The same thing is happening with the book of Revelation. Christians are under persecution. And so it would be silly to just outright say, Domitian is evil and God's going to kill him. What's easier to say is, Hey, this emperor is represented by this number. And so let's just talk about this number to shroud the literature in stuff that can't be understood. So that if your average Roman picks up the book of Revelation, they're not going to persecute the church more. Okay. The Lang, the literature doesn't give it away that I'm kind of talking about you. I'm making fun of you while you're around. Negro spirituals functioned in the same way, right?

Enslaved, uh, black Americans in this country would be singing about the underground railroad. And they're singing about the underground railroad in earshot of the people who are trying to systematically enslave them, but because the music is coded, then the slave, the slave holding masters are not understanding what's actually being said, but other enslaved people understand exactly what's being said. So people under persecution are typically going to create forms of literature that are highly artistic, but highly, highly, highly coded. So it's ignorant of us to just enter into the mix and think, Oh yeah. As long as I got the Holy ghost, man, I can understand what they're talking about. Not so much. Okay. So these four chapters 24, 25, 26, 27 are, uh, Isaiah's apocalypse family. The wait is over. My brand new book crushing chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold literally today. I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble, or you can go to a books, a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book and if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right.

Back to the episode. So that's our context. Now let's get into some nerdy nuggets. One of the things that I really want to highlight is this phrase on that day. This is going to get repeated a lot. On that day, in that day, a variation of the two on that day, in that day, on that day, in that day, which is a reference to the phrase, the day of Yahweh or the day of the Lord. Now the day of Yahweh or the day of the Lord is a hard phrase to interpret or nail down because it's almost like there are multiple days of the Lord. Okay. So anytime that Yahweh breaks into human history and saves his people, that's the day of the Lord. So like the Exodus, right? It's a day of the Lord. It's a day that Yahweh chose to break into human history and open up the red sea, lead his people through, and then drown their enemies. It's a day of the Lord, but it's also a day of judgment on Egypt. That same day of the Lord, which is salvation for his people is a day of judgment on people who were opposing his people. Okay. So that's the day of the Lord. Now, when Isaiah talks about the coming day of the Lord, a lot of times he's talking about, there's going to be a day of the Lord where judgment's going to come, but the judgment now is going to be Babylon coming to bring Israel off into captivity, but how in the world is that judgment, but also salvation? Well, it's God saving the people of Israel from themselves saying, Hey, you keep rebelling, you keep rebelling, you keep rebelling, but I'm going to put an end to your rebellion by chastising you, by disciplining you, and here's what's true after the exile, this is unfortunate, but it's human.

It's, it's just the human condition after exile. The people never struggled with idolatry ever again. They never worshiped Baal ever again. They never worshiped Asherah ever again. They never worshiped Molech ever again. Never, never, never, never. So it takes the exodus to deliver the people out of Egypt, but it takes the exile to get Egypt out of them. To finally get the polytheistic idolatrous practices that they learned while they were in Egypt to get those habits and those desires out of them. The exile did its job. And so when Isaiah says, there's going to be a coming day of the Lord, where he's going to judge, he's going to judge, he's going to judge. It's like, I thought that the day of the Lord is supposed to be a day of judgment and salvation. Yes, God is judging your sin, but also saving you from that same sin by putting you through a very painful process called the exile whereby you will be healed of a desire to sin against God in this way. So the day of the Lord. But then the day of the Lord has another context and it has an apocalyptic context. By apocalyptic, we mean it has a end of the world. Like it has a, this world will end and God will break into human history once and for all. And the thing that makes interpreting Isaiah or the book of Revelation or any apocalyptic literature difficult is that when is the author talking about the day of the Lord in their context?

And when is the author talking about the day of the Lord, which means there's multiple days of the Lord. There are like little days of the Lord. And then there's like the day of the Lord, the day where Jesus is going to return, the day where God will judge all the nations, the day where the new heaven and the new earth will start. And this heaven and this earth will stop. The day, the day where we'll stand before God and have to give an account for what we did with this life. And so what's always difficult, I mean, this is difficult for academics. This is why there's tons and tons of books behind me and all around me. Like this is tough. It's hard for professors and academics and scholars to tease out. Okay, like, is Isaiah talking about the day of the Lord or is Isaiah talking about his day of the Lord? So the difficulty in interpreting such prophecies, especially apocalyptic ones, is distinguishing between the two. Is this day describing a day when God will judge or save a nation or is the day describing the day when he will judge or save all nations? Okay, so that's always the thing that we're trying to figure out. Also, one thing that we really need to nail down is that the word apocalypse does not mean end of the world. I know that's how our secular society has interpreted the word, right? So zombie apocalypse means a zombie movie about the end of the world. So, but this is a place where, because Christians got this wrong, now everyone has this wrong. The word apocalypsis in Greek means unveiling. It's why the book of Revelation is called Revelation. In Greek, the book is called Apocalypse.

That's it. It means John's apocalypse. And what's an apocalypse? An apocalypse is a revelation. Because if you're under persecution, all you can see is that Babylon is in charge, that the Babylonians are in charge. So God needs to give you a revelation. And what's that revelation? That Yahweh's on his throne. And the same way in the New Testament, if you're living in Rome and you're experiencing persecution, all you can see is that the Roman Empire is powerful. We're nothing, they're everything. Domitian is in control. He can take Christians and throw them into the Colosseum and feed them to lions. He can do whatever he wants. So what do the Christians that are living throughout the Roman Empire need? They need a revelation. They need a revelation that there's an invisible reality, that there are angels surrounding us, that there's a God that's on the throne, that it's not just Nero or Domitian that's on the throne, but an apocalypse is an unveiling. It's a revealing of a spiritual reality that our natural eyes are not always able to see. And so the word apocalyptic doesn't mean end of the world. It means a revealing. That is exactly what's happening in these chapters of the book of Isaiah.

There's a revelation of God's reality, of God's truth, of God's ideal, of what God actually wants to do. Okay. Isaiah chapter 27. We are going to get one of my favorite nerdy nuggets. We're going to get reference to a creature by the name of Love. Leviathan. Now, I love when the Bible talks about Leviathan. I wrote a book called Crushing Chaos that is all about God conquering Leviathan. I actually think this is one of the most important biblical themes in the entire Bible, is God crushing dragons. Now, you may wonder, are there really dragons in the Bible? Yes, they are, because dragons symbolize chaos. So, I know that many modern readers, we read Genesis as the account of God making something out of nothing. But, actually, for an ancient person, they would have seen the subduing of Leviathan in the creation of the world as God not making something out of nothing, but God creating order in the place of chaos. And so, we're gonna get Leviathan here in Isaiah chapter 27, verse 1. On that day, the Lord, with his cruel and great and strong sword, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. So, you see how God, the Old Testament, links dragons and serpents. Okay, Leviathan is a dragon, but he's gonna be called a serpent. So, these are the same idea in the Bible. I know for us in the Western world, dragons are not serpents and serpents are not dragons, but in the ancient world, they are one in the same. Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. So, when we think about dragons, we think about creatures on the earth. When the ancients thought about dragons, they thought about land dragons and sea dragons as both just dragons. So, what is God actually saying? He's saying that part of the day of the Lord. Now, John is gonna pick up on this big time in the book of Revelation. What does Revelation 12 open up with? You would think I'd grab it sooner since Revelation is the last book of the Bible. Come on, come on, Bible guy. Revelation chapter 12. A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon. She was

pregnant. Then another portent appeared in heaven, a great red dragon. Okay, so this is John is describing Leviathan or Satan trying to kill Mary, trying to kill the one who he knows will crush the head of chaos, which leads us into our timeless truth. God overcomes chaos. The way that we overcome chaos is not by trying to find our own order. The way that we overcome chaos is surrendering to the order that God wants to bring into our lives. God ultimately crushes chaos. It's actually the promise that he gives in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, that one offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. It's not just a serpent. It's a dragon. Because if you think about it, a serpent that has lost its legs and limbs means that it used to be a dragon. And so Jesus is the one who knows how to conquer chaos and then teaches us how to conquer chaos. I used to tell the kids in my youth group all the time, I'm not going to pray that God would give you peace. I don't pray for peace. I pray for order because the God's solution for chaos is not peace. So his solution for like your anxiety, it's not peace. His solution for your anxiety is order. Because if you got order, you'd always be able to grow the fruit of peace. Peace is a natural byproduct of an ordered life. When your life is full of order, then your life will always be full of peace. So I don't really pray for people to have peace. I pray for them to embrace the order of God in their life. And that's a timeless truth. Whether dragons are real or not, whether you believe Leviathan is out there in the ocean or not, like whatever you believe about how we've interpreted these chapters of Isaiah, here's what I know is true. What I know is true that there's chaos in all of our lives. And God says that on that day that we are living in between the day where Jesus has already began to conquer chaos and the ultimate day where all chaos will be crushed. And while we're in the middle, we use the power that Jesus has already deposited within us to crush chaos in our life, and attract and maintain God's order in our life. But we look forward to the day where he will crush all chaos permanently once and for all in a decisive move, which will mean throwing the dragon into the lake of fire. And I look forward to that day. And the only question is, will I experience salvation

on that day or judgment on that day? And because I've placed my hope and my faith in the person of Jesus, I believe that I won't experience judgment on that day, the Lord, but I'll experience salvation on that day, the Lord. And I believe you will too. If you put your hope and your faith and your allegiance and your trust in King Jesus. All right, tomorrow, we're going to continue our trek through the book of Isaiah. I'll be here nerding out with you. I'm so proud of you. Hey, if you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, what you doing with your life? Let's read the Bible. I think the Bible is good for you. I'm proud of you. I love you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Peace. And subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.